Honorees
Team Cleveland Honored Hero
We Run and Walk for Julia
Meet Julia, She is eleven years old and is a sixth grader who enjoys sports, especially basketball and softball. She collects buttons and she maintains straight A's, even when she had to miss school for months at a time due to her ulcerative colitis. Out of 13 drummers in her school band she is one of three girls, and 10 boys. She never lets the small stuff keep her from smiling and having fun! This summer she will be a camper at Camp Oasis, a summer camp for kids with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, this will be her third summer attending. She is known for writing her own songs about her Stoma, "Bob", always keeping her sense of humor.
Julia was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis when she was 9, in April of 2006. Although this was the first time she saw symptoms in herself this was not the first time her family had seen the effects of ulcerative colitis. Julia's mother, Michelle, was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in March of 2003, and suffered with chronic symptoms for 2 years before having an emergency colectomy in March 2005. Just a month before Michelle's last surgery in August of 2006, Julia started seeing symptoms of her own. Their battle with ulcerative colitis was not over, it was just beginning, again.
Julia was sick the entire year of 2006 and no medication would help her condition. She was weak, tired, and had no energy. She was only able to attend school on a very limited schedule and lost a lot of weight. In December of 2006 she and her family went to the Cleveland Clinic every week to get her symptoms under control. In January of 2007 Julia had to have an emergency colectomy to have her colon removed. She was required to use an ostomy bag for the whole year. She quickly named her Stoma "Bob" since it was going to be part of her life for now. In the Summer of 2007 Julia played catcher on her softball team, she was 10, and played all summer with an ostomy. They went on to be undefeated in their league!!!
Julia had her reconnection in December, 2007. She would no longer need "Bob" but would need her sense of humor and her family more than ever. She returned to school part-time in March 2008, but could not return full-time until May 2008.
Today Julia does not need any medication to get through the day! She is not in any pain and still has her sense of humor and her family that she can rely on.
She is our hero! She is our inspiration! Our Hope! If she can fight like she did, we can too, for her. We Run and Walk in honor of Julia!
We hope to someday find a cure for Crohn's and Colitis, for Julia, and for all the other people who suffer from these diseases.